an article written by Pajda 2005
Czech-bornPajda Perina reflects on his days in the  Jarrah forest studying diploma of Arts in Fine Furniture Design from the School of Wood Dwellingup, Western Australia, as he is establishing his own business in Queensland Noosa Hinterlands -Cooroy.
My study of furniture design started in 2000 when I first arrived at the School of Wood Dwellingup. I didn't have much experience working with wood and I had to create some pieces from scratch just to fulfill the entry requirements for the school. I began to gain the skills I needed firstly with the making of a jewelry box which my lecturer designed. After this project we were let loose to create our own designs.
The very first piece of furniture fully designed by me was a Hall table. This piece was completely constructed without any compromise on my original design. I started to realize than the designs I create will be complicated and quite complex, this was my first experience of the ever-present tension between the opportunities of design and the limitation of construction. Luckily enough this experience didn't take away my motivation and passion to create.
The breakthrough in my work came during the Mirror project. The zero tolerance of construction compromise was even more important for me for this piece. This process led me into new problems, which could be resolved only by experiments. However with time and repeating some processes, I was able to create mirror which according to my original design. This project allowed me to achieve quite radical shapes without fear if it is technically possible. The creation of new methods or the use of new technology is the pleasure of my work and I always start work with the words of my Father on my mind everything is possible to make the hardest thing is to begin. Since then, all my creations are ruled 100% by design.
Another thing I learnt during the mirror project, was the importance of three-dimensional projection. In my opinion, two-dimensional drawings representing three-dimensional objects have to be distorted. The transfer erases the depth, form, and complexity of the object. In real life there is rarely a chance to see the object from two planes as on paper. After understanding this I tried to solve this problem my making models. I started to make models usually in 1:5 scale with just rough shapes and form, but where it is possible to see the object from all angles and situations. I tested this method for the first time in my design of the Bed.
The design of the Queen size Bed was fully resolved by making models and testing all the possible variations of the view. This allowed me to finally design a Bed without having any back side on it. A special frame construction is used to replace any visible connection parts particularly on the back of the Bed head. It makes the Bed head look nice and clean even from behind, that way the Bed can be used in the middle of the room as the dominant piece of the room. From the technological point of view the most advanced part of the Bed is the bead head. The Torsion box is used to achieve the depth of the behead.
The next project required for my study was a toolbox. I tried to compensate for an uninteresting box shape of the briefcase by using an interesting colour combination of materials and the use of the modern material HEXCORE. From the design point of view the handle was an interesting object to create. Against my expectation, the handle was quite complex object to design and I came up with many variations.
One of the most complex projects during my study in School of Wood Dwellingupwas the chair. A chair itself is one of the most difficult pieces of furniture to make. It has to incorporate the necessary strength and construction stability and be light as well as ergonomic. Luckily enough, my tutor for this project was Neil Erasmus, who is famous for his perfectionalist way of working. To construct a fully functional chair, full-scale models were needed. The models were built out of pine and I had to make seven of them before I was able to achieve a satisfying result. To make the chair I had to make jigs for each component. The jig making process was time consuming but it should radically speed up the processing time when the chair is repeated. While designing the Marilyn chair, I used again the power of negative space (which has become a trademark of my work). This time I radically split the chair including the seat into two halves, connected together in two places only. The chair project was an excellent project for me, a project where many important factors of design combined together. For me, my chair is an example of the combination of functionality and art something I would like to pursue in the future.
In the search for the physical limits of materials, I constructed a coffee table. The design process was different this time. First I bent the Sheoaklegs and then began to work on the actual design. In this project I joined design forces with designer Adyn Kelly and here you can see his variation of the design with use of identical parts. This kind of cooperation was one of the many valuable experiences, that I got from the School of Wood. While designing the coffee table, I realized that my designs were starting to move from fully functional pieces towards art pieces and sculptures.
The name of my last school project a sculpture Impact refers about the date of its design. It wasn't easy for me to make decision to do a non-functional piece. This object couldn't be called furniture anymore and its leaning towards sculpture I decided that as School was coming to the end, this was my chance to try something which pushes the boundaries of my knowledge and experience. The object was again built first as a small model in 1:5 scale free of any construction details.
After moving across the Australian continent to Queensland, I was kindly invited to join other contemporary furniture designer/maker Ross Annels to his studio in Cooroy. In this truly inspiring place in Sunshine coast hinterlands, I re-designed my giftware product STEM VASE , and with Ross developed new product TABLE TRAY using steam bending technique. For the annual Cooroy contemporary furniture exhibition 2004 in Butter factory Cooroy I designed new coffee table TRIPOT. This design is accommodating modern material such is glass and polished aluminum and porcelain. Tripot is using long time passion of using steam bend curves in three legged structure. It also use porcelain vessels made by Tanja Gaher which have small wasps nests in them. This piece further reassured me about my passion for structures with exposed joinery based on triangle and curve.
I am aware that it is my love of design that drives me. My challenge to myself is to use simple, elegant construction methods to realize complex and creative objects that are only limited by my imagination. To me, this is good design.
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